Lien Meals at Airport Restaurant

February 26, 2014, 12:00 am

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The Santa Fe Municipal Airport’s only restaurant continues to have trouble with the IRS.

SFR reported last month that the IRS had levied a $108,000 federal tax lien against Duke City Gourmet, but now a new lien is on record against the company that runs the Santa Fe Airport Grill, this one for $9,130. The new lien identifies alleged unpaid federal taxes in different tax periods from the previous lien. Lisa Van Allen, the company’s managing partner, says the new lien is simply penalties and interest from last one. She adds that the IRS estimates of the restaurant’s unpaid taxes were “extravagantly high,” and that they’ve all been paid off.

The county clerk, however, has no recorded Release of Lien letters from the IRS on file.

Last year, airport manager Francey Jesson first raised concerns about the restaurant’s underpayments in rent as well as a favorable lease deal with the airport that she maintains could jeopardize the airport’s federal funding. Jesson says both sides have been recently discussing terms for a new lease for the restaurant that’s more fair to the city.

Still, the restaurant troubles raise red flags partly because of the two people listed as its business officers—Van Allen and Jon Hendry. Van Allen is the city’s film liaison and Hendry is the president of the New Mexico Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Both were major supporters of outgoing Mayor David Coss. Hendry told SFR last month that he hasn’t been a part of the restaurant for “at least a decade.”